Blog
December 8, 1980: John Lennon Shot Dead
by monique t
News / December 08, 2005
On December 8, 1980, former Beatle John Lennon was shot dead in front of his New York apartment.
Do you remember the day Lennon was shot? Do you have other memories of John Lennon or of The Beatles?
James Henke's Lennon Legend is the illustrated life of John Lennon. The biography features removable facsimiles of his handwritten lyrics and famous drawings as well as rare photographs, documents and other memorabilia drawn from Yoko Ono's personal archives and other sources.
The biographical text runs chronologically from Lennon's early years in Liverpool through to his death in New York City, with the focus on his life as a musician and artist.
The Naming of Names by Anna Pavord
by monique t
News / December 04, 2005
Saturday's Globe and Mail Style section profiled Anna Pavord's The Naming of Names as an ideal gift.
Marjorie Harris says, "replete wtih gorgeous illustrations, this is a book for plantaholics who long to know every detail. She proves that gardening is an intellictual pursuit."
The Naming of Names is a thrilling adventure into botanical history by the author of the worldwide bestseller The Tulip.
Imagine a world without definition: a world where plants exist but their properties are unknown because there is no way to classify them. Are they good to eat or poisonous? Can they be used to cure an illness or even save a life?
The search for order in the natural world is traced in The Naming of Names. The book takes readers from Athens in the third century BC, to Constantinople, Venice, the Salerno medical school and the Pisa and Padua universities during the Renaissance.
Did anyone get a chance to see Anna while she was here in Canada? On December 2, she was at the Vancouver Planetarium.
Bid on a Signed Edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
by monique t
Harry Potter + News / December 03, 2005
Quill and Quire is reporting that Frontier College, a Canadian literacy organization, is hoping to raise funds by launching First eDitions, an online auction of signed first-edition books, through eBay.
The bidding on a signed, adult-cover edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince began at 5 p.m. on Dec. 2.
Each month thereafter, another first edition book will be brought to auction. The books will be chosen by bookseller Ben McNally of Nicholas Hoare and Globe and Mail books editor Martin Levin. Frontier College has committed to running the program for a year.
First eDitions can be accessed through eBay's charity auctions page or through the Frontier College website.
To bid on the signed copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, visit eBay.ca.
Direct link to eBay bidding page for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
To receive Harry Potter News Alerts by email, sign-up at Raincoast.com
www.raincoast.com/newsletters/
Lonely Planet Bluelist
by monique t
News + Travel / December 02, 2005
Lonely Planet Bluelist. It's the next big thing.
(blu, list) v. to recommend a travel experience
Places that BLUE you away. Vacations your friends took that made you GREEN with envy. RED-hot destinations. ORANGE you glad Lonely Planet BLUELIST is coming soon? 618 Things to Do & Places to Go.
Bluelist tells all.
Launching December 13, Lonely Planet Bluelist is a ground-breaking annual travel guide that will seek to answer three essential questions: “what's hot?” “what's not?” and “what's next?”
Capturing the world's hottest trends, destinations and experiences with authority and attitude, Lonely Planet Bluelist will set the agenda for the year ahead. Packed with inspirational travel ideas, Bluelist is Lonely Planet's view of the world for 2006, as voted for by the extended travel community of authors, staff, readers and travellers.
Start thinking of your top 10 lists and see if they compare.
The Globe 100
by monique t
News / November 28, 2005
The Globe and Mail's 8th annual selection of the 100 best and most influential books of 2005 was announced on Saturday.
The Sweet Edge by Alison Pick
Described as gorgeous, strange, funny and terribly sexy.
What's it about: Two lovers set to break up lead separate lives one summer. Ellen works through the muggy days in a trendy Toronto art gallery, her boyfriend Adam takes a solo canoe trip into the Arctic.
Dancing in the No-Fly Zone: A Woman's Journey through Iraq by Hadani Ditmars
Described as a unique triumph and a daunting debut.
What's it about: Ditmars, a Canadian journalist, returns to Iraq in September 2003 to find the friends she met over the years and to see how their lives have changed since her first visit in 1997.
Do you have a favourite book on the list?
The Highest Tide: Amazon Best Books of 2005
by monique t
News / November 28, 2005
Amazon.ca has chosen The Highest Tide as one of the Best Books of 2005: Editors' Picks.
Visit Amazon.ca Best Books of 2005: Editors' Picks
Thirteen-year-old Miles O'Malley is the first person to ever encounter a live giant squid, but it's not the first or the last of Miles' discoveries.
Enter to win a signed copy of The Highest Tide:
Visit Raincoast.com and mention you saw this posting.
Listen to Jim Lynch, Raincoast Podcast (MP3).
More Best Books of 2005 Selections
Best Books of 2005: Nonfiction Editors' Picks include:
Pyongyang by Guy Delisle
Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin
And the Amazon.ca Customers' Favourites include
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Berrett-Koehler Breaks the Mould
by monique t
News / November 25, 2005
Fastcompany.com has a fantastic article on the distinctive business model of publisher Berrett-Koehler (distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books).
Getting on the Same Page: Book publishing is a difficult and contentious business. Upstart Berrett-Koehler has a more collaborative--and profitable--model. From: Issue 100, November 2005, by Lucas Conley.
Berrett-Koehler is a small 13-year-old, San Francisco-based publisher with a radically different approach to book publishing. Instead of a traditional model where the publisher pays the author an advance on royalties and then makes all the decisions on the marketing and sales plans for the book, Berrett-Koehler uses a collaborative model that brings in the author. But they don't only bring in the author, they bring together the editor, outside reviewers and outside readers. As a team they make decisions on all aspects of the publishing process.
The results--smarter books and better sales--speak for themselves. Last year, BK's revenue grew 25%, to $7 million, and is projected to grow another 50% in 2005. The average BK author sells some 15,000 copies, 27% more than the industry average [11,800 according to the Book Industry Study Group]. "BK epitomizes what . . . smaller, focused publishers of the present and future can and should be doing," says Michael Cader, founder and editor of "Publishers Lunch," a daily newsletter that covers the publishing industry.
The article goes on to talk about the ownership structure of the company (46% is owned by more than 100 authors, customers, employees and suppliers). Details of the difference in contracts and negotiations are described, as well as the manuscript-review process. The model is more than clever, and apparently quite successful.
Average revenue per book [publishing industry]: $146,667
Average revenue per book [Berrett-Koehler]: $220,000
Read the article and post what you think of this model.
Hadani Ditmars reads from Dancing in the No-Fly Zone
by monique t
News / November 25, 2005
The Capilano College Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation Lecture Series welcomes
Hadani Ditmars
author of
Dancing in the No Fly Zone: A Woman's Journey Through Iraq
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
7:00 pm
Cedar Theatre (CE 148), Capilano College
2055 Purcell Way, North Vancouver
Funding for this free lecture has been graciously provided by Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation
Join us for a multimedia presentation, complete with live music by Iraqi oud master Serwan Yamolky and video footage, complimenting Ditmars' unique narration of her travels and work in present-day Iraq.
When Hadani Ditmars first went to Iraq in 1997 for the New York Times, she was shocked at what she saw. Six years of the worst sanctions ever inflicted on a modern nation had brought the people to their knees. Yet there was so much more to the “cradle of civilization” than misery and suffering. In the midst of despair she found art, beauty, architecture, music. She discovered orchestras who played impassioned symphonies on wrecked instruments, playwrights who pushed the limits of censorship, artists who spent their last dinars on paint and canvas, families who still celebrated weddings by dancing to makam--traditional love songs.
Hadani Ditmars is a Canadian journalist whose work has been published in the New York Times, London Independent, Globe and Mail, Time, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Newsweek and broadcast on the BBC and CBC radio and television. Her Saturday Night feature on the situation in Israel/Palestine has been nominated for a National Magazine Award and her Ms. Magazine essay on Iraqi women has been adopted for several university courses. She has been reporting from the Middle East since 1992 and and has been on assignment in Iraq six times since 1997.
She is currently working on a documentary film about her experience of returning to post-invasion Iraq.
House of Anansi Announces Podcast
by monique t
News + Podcasts / November 25, 2005
House of Anansi has joined Raincoast Books as one of the first Canadian publishers experimenting with podcasting.
Anansi's first podcast features writer and critic Noah Richler interviewing Stephen Lewis, author of Race Against Time.
To subscribe to the Anansi podcast, copy and paste the below URL into the "Subscribe" function in
your podcast application or software: http://www.anansi.ca/podcast/apod.xml
The Raincoast podcast is available from iTunes by searching for "Raincoast" or the RSS feed is available from Feedburner: http://feeds.feedburner.com/raincoast
The MP3 file can also be downloaded by clicking on the below link:
Full Podcast: Listen to Jim Lynch
Jim Lynch is the author of The Highest Tide
The Walrus Magazine and Colin McAdam
by monique t
Fiction + News / November 24, 2005
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/
The issue that is on newsstands (as of this week) contains a story from none other than Colin McAdam, author of Some Great Thing.
Winner of the 2005 First Novel Award (Books in Canada/Amazon.ca)
2005 Finalist for The Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
2004 Finalist for Governor General's Literary Award
It's a good book. Check out the website.
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